Women helping women

Throughout her pregnancy, Mboo Sukabanto received the care she needed in her community and at her local health center to stay malaria-free, thanks to the TIPTOP program. When labor began, Mboo had nurse-midwife Anny Pashi by her side, helping her deliver a healthy baby girl—women helping women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This International Women’s Day, we’re celebrating Generation Equality—the incredible result of empowering women to be key decision-makers in their own lives. When women are given a platform to educate communities on critical maternal health issues, everyone benefits.

Click the arrows below for a few snapshots of her delivery, and the impact that nurses and community health workers alike are having on communities across the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Photos by Karel PrinslooStory by Holly O’Hara, Jhpiego

Madame Anny Pashi Mbuyuyu, a midwife from Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is using her knowledge, skills and community influence to bring the province of Kwango one step closer to Generation Equality.

Anny is a trained nurse and midwife who regularly takes part in deliveries and antenatal care. For the past 5 years, she has worked as a nurse and midwife at La Barriere health facility in Kwango’s capital, Kenge.

Her work on maternal health introduced her to the Transforming Intermittent Preventive Treatment for Optimal Pregnancy (TIPTOP) project. Led by Jhpiego, TIPTOP focuses on reaching pregnant women who are at risk of malaria in pregnancy, distributing high-quality preventive medicine through community health workers (CHWs) and promoting comprehensive antenatal care at local health centers.

Anny provides excellent care to women of all ages across her community, including 18-year-old Mboo Sukabanto, pictured here, and her newborn daughter. “When I help a woman deliver, I feel concerned for her. I want to be by her side to help her through and deliver her child safely,” Anny says. She is grateful that women like Mboo are responding positively to CHWs through the TIPTOP project and seeking antenatal care and antimalarial drugs early on to ensure a healthy pregnancy.

TIPTOP helps to train health care workers like Anny to integrate malaria prevention activities into their maternity work. “We are taught to educate women—even those that are not pregnant—that they need to go to health facilities and find a CHW close to their community, and to get preventive drugs in order to have a malaria-free pregnancy,” Anny says.

DRC sees approximately 750,000 pregnant women who are infected with malaria each year. Preventing malaria during pregnancy helps women thrive during pregnancy and gives children a healthy start in life. Through TIPTOP, CHWs identify pregnant women in their communities, distribute preventive antimalarial medicine to eligible pregnant women and refer them to health centers to receive comprehensive antenatal care.

Knowledge of TIPTOP is quickly spreading across Kenge as more women like Mboo are becoming aware of these lifesaving services. “Women see their friends who have benefited from the TIPTOP activities,” says Anny. They realize they need to protect themselves from malaria and regularly attend antenatal care visits to have a safe, malaria-free pregnancy.

Not only is TIPTOP educating women, it’s giving women the autonomy to educate those around them. Georgine Tangewalk, a CHW from Kenge, interacts daily with community members to educate them on the importance of antenatal care and malaria prevention. “TIPTOP has had a great impact among women. They are delivering safely, avoiding maternal death, which used to be the main issue [in the community],” says Georgine.

Georgine received TIPTOP training to equip her with the knowledge and skills to communicate with pregnant women in the community and educate them on lifesaving services. “I hope that we progress with TIPTOP by organizing different trainings for staff development,” says Georgine. She also notes that the number of pregnant women suffering from malaria has significantly dropped with the TIPTOP approach.

Indeed, Kenge has shown impressive progress since the start of the TIPTOP project. Since August 2018, over 96,000 women have been reached with education and messaging around malaria in pregnancy. CHWs have distributed over 30,000 doses of antimalarial drugs, and approximately 7,800 pregnant women have attended four or more antenatal care visits in health centers.

Thanks to community leaders and health care workers such as Georgine and Anny, more and more women are receiving the critical care they need for a malaria-free pregnancy. Access to health education and services is one of the greatest tools in the fight against malaria in pregnancy and will continue to propel women in Kwango toward Generation Equality. “I hope to acquire more knowledge and to specialize my skills,” says Anny. Her wish for her community is that they continue to listen to CHWs through the TIPTOP project and seek the care they need so that more women can have safe, healthy pregnancies.

2020 is the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife. In April, 2020 the World Health Organization will release the first ever State of the World’s Nurses report. Check back throughout 2020 for updates, new messages, stories and more from Jhpiego and our partners.